LLH Archive / field notes on language

Language,
in the wild.

Essays, practical guides and language records for people who want to understand what they are learning, not only complete another lesson.

Cockney Rhyming Slang: How This Unique London Dialect Works

“Use your loaf and get up the dog and bone” might sound like nonsense, but to someone familiar with Cockney…

Learn linguistics for free 11 min Oct 06, 2026

Imagine sitting down for dinner when someone looks across the table and asks, “Can you pass the salt?” You could…

Learn linguistics for free 10 min Oct 05, 2026

How can you reconstruct a word from a language that nobody has spoken for thousands of years? No recordings. No…

Learn linguistics for free 19 min Sep 28, 2026

Your phone can transcribe your voice, predict the next word you’re going to type and translate a message into another…

Language Learning News 13 min Sep 19, 2026

Apple’s new AirPods 5 might look like another yearly headphone upgrade, but one feature points towards something much bigger. With…

Learn spanish for free 8 min Sep 10, 2026

You follow podcasts at normal speed. You might even watch series without subtitles and catch most of the jokes. Then…

Most language apps follow a pretty familiar formula. You tap the right answer, type a translation, repeat a phrase out…

Learn linguistics for free 8 min Aug 03, 2026

TL;DR: Language acquisition is the process of developing the ability to understand and use language through exposure, interaction and practice.…

Learn linguistics for free 6 min Jul 16, 2026

Japanese, Arabic and Spanish can express the same ideas, but they work very differently beneath the surface. Linguistic typology explores…

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